Culture.

Josephine Quinn writes in the Guardian about the approaching demise of A Level classical languages in state schools. These subjects are still quite healthy in the private sector by all accounts. (Another example of our divided system.) She argues that we should encourage the study of classical language and culture not because it is the basis of our own culture (which she explains it patently isn't, with it's acceptance of slavery, the death penalty and exposing girl babies hillsides) but rather because of how very DIFFERENT it is from our own culture. 

She writes: "And this is where the true value of studying the classical Mediterranean lies: not in its connections with our own culture and experiences, but in how very strange and foreign it can be. A wealth of literary and archaeological evidence gives us the opportunity to see a different world through different eyes, to try to understand and perhaps even find some sympathy with the mentalities of people who think in completely different ways to us, on the basis of completely different life experiences." And personally I think we could use a bit more of that sympathy and understanding nowadays. 

At one point she mentions "Lotto-democracy", a system when government posts are allocated by lottery. Everyone not only can take part but may be obliged to take part in government. Without doubt the power hungry would find a way to circumvent the system so that they had control of a lot of what was going on but as a way of making people get involved it must have some advantages. It beats voter apathy anyway. 

I am not sure if it is still the case, but at one time head teachers in Spanish schools were appointed in this way. Almost any member of staff could be selected, probably voted onto the post by their peers, to serve as head teacher for an allotted period of time. Note the emphasis on the word "serve". Neither did head teachers receive the inflated salary that schools management teams receive in the UK. Thus you did not have people applying for the post because of the enhanced salary. What's more, the head teacher, being elected to the post, was also accountable to his staff. It sounds like a good system, of course, by now it could all have changed and they could be following a UK, or even a USA, model. 

When we are out and about, at various spots on our regular walks we go past old mill ponds where the ducks are so accustomed to being fed that they came rushing to the bank at the first sight of a person strolling by. Feeding the ducks has long been a habit in this country, a way of entertaining small children out on a walk. A meaningful way of taking a break before setting off for home. And better for you that an ice cream from the van. Now I read that we should please not feed ducks bread. It's not good for them. “Try to vary what you give them and swap it for healthier more natural treats like oats, corn, or defrosted frozen peas. And exercise portion control,” said an expert. It just makes life so much more complicated. You no longer just have to worry about childhood obesity but also make sure the local ducks have a balanced diet. It's all just completely over the top. 

Besides, feeding the ducks, in my opinion anyway, makes a lot more sense that feeding pigeons. I grow quite agitated when I see people potentially traumatising their toddlers by having them hold out handfuls of seed to masses of pigeons. If you are only two feet tall, being surrounded by hungry birds must be very frightening. And people really shouldn't encourage these flying vermin! They only come back in greater numbers. As, apparently, do Canada geese. 

In the same article where I read that we are feeding ducks the wrong stuff, there was a comment about geese locally. It told us that Peter Rawson, a resident of Stalybridge in Manchester, said his local waterway had become plagued by Canada geese, despite there being few places for them to graze naturally. “They are only in Stalybridge because there is a ready, and seemingly endless, supply of bread provided by some of the locals and the output from all this consumption can be seen all over the towpath,” he said. 

Now, I have seen geese in the centre of Stalybridge but I wouldn't say the place is "plagued" by them. It's all in the way you look at things. What's more, it's part of our culture. Better to feed bread to ducks than people to lions.